YouTube star Logan Paul knew that he had his work cut out for him when he was cast in a new musical remake of Martha Coolidge’s 1983 teen classic “Valley Girl.” Starting with the dance routines. “I’m not a dancer. I’m a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound brick of a human,” Paul told TheWrap in a Zoom interview. “It’s easy to say, ‘Loosen up,’ but that’s hard — I’m pretty tense, you know?”
In addition, there was the challenge of embodying the 1980s time period of the original film (a cult hit that provided an early breakout role for Nicolas Cage as a young punk rocker from the city who teams up with a girl from the San Fernando Valley).
“They asked me to grow out a mullet and lose 20 pounds, so I only did one of those,” joked Paul, who has a supporting role in the film (which began streaming on demand this month).
One thing about the ’80s he really liked: the sweet ride that his character has onscreen. “The yellow Bronco that my character Mickey drives, I actually made an offer on it,” he said, insisting he’d pay top dollar. Unfortunately, it wasn’t up for sale.
In the interview, Paul also recounted his struggle to learn the choreography for the musical numbers, a fight scene that drew blood and a sequence on roller skates that faltered because none of the cast knew how to skate.
Paul, who first got his start on the now-defunct Vine in 2013, has built a loyal online following with 28 million subscribers on his two personal YouTube channels and 2.1 million on his podcast “Impaulsive.”
Watch the exclusive clip above.